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Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2026 13:16:48 +0100
Message-Id: <DGJS6AOM9IBA.3IWZB0PG3L4Q2@achill.org>
Subject: Re: Using repository tags ("@tag") with virtual packages
From: "Achill Gilgenast" <achill@achill.org>
To: =?utf-8?q?Andreas_K=C3=A4h=C3=A4ri?= <andreas.kahari@abc.se>,
 <~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org>
References: <aZg13CbA5CLeVI_0@dolores.invalid>
In-Reply-To: <aZg13CbA5CLeVI_0@dolores.invalid>
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Hey Andreas,

On Fri Feb 20, 2026 at 11:22 AM CET, Andreas K=C3=A4h=C3=A4ri wrote:
> Hi,
>
> A few months ago I asked this question on the "Unix & Linux"
> StackExchange site, but without getting a proper answer, other than
> a comment saying it's not possible.
>
> I'm posting it here to see whether anyone has had a similar issue, or
> knows of plans to support this in the future, or just in general has
> thoughts on the matter.  It's not a critical issue for me.
>
> Assuming I have the following repository configuration:
>
> 	http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/main
> 	http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/latest-stable/community
>
> 	@edge http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community
> 	@edge http://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing
>

Please not that this is _very_ unsupported and you _will_ get into
issues with this way. Mixing repositories with different Alpine versions
is unsupported: https://docs.alpinelinux.org/user-handbook/0.1a/Working/apk=
..html#_repositories_releases_and_mirrors

> I usually want to install packages associated with each other under a
> common virtual package, e.g.,
>
> 	apk add -t docker-all docker docker-doc docker-cli-compose
>
> This works fairly well, but it doesn't work if I want to use the @edge
> tag, as in, e.g.,
>
> 	apk add -t docker-all docker@edge docker-doc@edge docker-cli-compose@edg=
e
>
> This fails with:
>
> 	ERROR: 'docker@edge' is not a valid child dependency, format is name([<>=
~=3D]version)
>
> It would be nice if it were possible to use the tag in this context, as
> it would allow me to easily install a set of related packages from a
> tagged repository as a common virtual package.

This is a known issue, because "virtual packages go to the package database=
 as
locally generated packages. And package dependencies cannot have tags, beca=
use
tags are local configuration."

See <https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/apk-tools/-/issues/10902>.=